Mablethorpe man’s five-year dog ban after 10-year-old boy is injured

Courts

Published:10:02Wednesday 17 December 2014

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Magistrates at Skegness have banned a Mablethorpe man from owning a dog for five years, after hearing that his dog jumped up at a 10-year-old boy scratching him, after it had been ‘spooked’ by the Halloween costume he was wearing.

Theo Isaac Lewis, 33, of Kingsley Road in Mablethorpe, had admitted at a previous hearing to being in charge of a dog that was dangerously out of control and injuring the boy on October 31, 2013.

He was also appearing for sentence after being found guilty after a trial of being the owner of a dog and allowing it to enter the garden of a house where it was not permitted to be on April 19 this year, and that there were reasonable grounds for apprehension that it would injure someone.

Nick Todd, prosecuting, said that the dog – a Japanese Akita called Shadow – did not bite the boy, who was wearing a ghost costume and who was out in Chaucer Street on Halloween with other children.

He said the dog got out and was not under proper control, was apparently spooked by the costume and it reared up onto the boy.

In relation to the incident on April 19, he said that Lewis’ neighbours had been erecting a new fence but Lewis’ garden did not have a gate and the dog got out and into the neighbour’s garden where it attacked their pet labrador.

“They were put in fear by the incident because they knew of the previous incident,” he told the magistrates.

Mitigating, Saleem Khan said that Lewis appreciated and was sorry for what had happened.

He said that in the second incident, Lewis’ daughter had inadvertently let the dog out and that Lewis had intervened and stopped the incident as soon as he could.

He added that Lewis was an animal lover and would like to own a dog again in the future.

The magistrates imposed a 12 month community order with supervision and a curfew ordering Lewis to stay indoors at home between the hours of 9pm and 8am daily for three months.

He was also prohibited from keeping a dog for five years and ordered to pay a £60 victim surcharge, £100 in compensation and £100 in court costs.

They did not order the destruction of the dog after they heard evidence on oath from Lewis that the dog had been destroyed in June.